512 



Popular Science Monthly 



This tree was prniiabiy pinned down 

 beneath a piece of heavy timber or fallen 

 tree-trunk when it was a mere sapling 



At right, a branch of an old sugar-maple 

 has been incorporated in the body of an 

 adjoining tree about fifty years younger 



Freak Trees. How Did They 

 Happen ? 



TO the person who is not versed in 

 forest lore the grotesquely bent 

 tree trunks that are to be found in almost 

 all woods are mystifying and wonder is 

 often aroused as to the cause. Foresters 

 will tell cjuestioners that in the case of 

 trees in mountainous country and other 

 sections where the snowfall is heavy, 

 the weight of snow is responsible in most 

 instances for the queer twists they as- 

 sume. When a tree is young the weight 

 of snow that falls on its braiuhcs often 

 bends the trunk over until it is Hat lined 

 to the ground. Sometimes it is buried 



under six or eight feet of snow 

 and held in that position so long 

 that when warm weather comes 

 the tree fails to spring back into 

 it normal position. The summer 

 sun causes the tip of the young 

 tree to turn upward and if it 

 manages to withstand the Aveight 

 of the snow of the next winter, 

 that portion of the tree will, as 

 a general rule, continue to grow 

 in a nomial way. "Hair-pin" 

 bends and other odd shapes 

 result. 



The bending over of a small 

 tree under the weight of a heavy 

 branch or tree-trunk that falls 

 on it also results in producing 



these .seemingly freakish formations. 



A curious tree stands on the top of 

 Tunnel llill, Johnstown, Pa., about four 

 miles from town. It is a sugar maple 

 about one inmdred years old which has 

 prolonged its own life by grafting a 

 branch into a nuich younger tree. 



